De situation : a big army of Saracens besieges Jerusalem. For each unit of Crusaders ,
there are two units of Saracens .

They have : three attack towers , heavy
- and a lot of light artillery
(catapults), and several mobile sieges constructions. They are building a
wooden rampage to reach de walls en using several ladders.

Balian has : four units of bow-man, two elite Templers
horseman and one of veterans. One unit Hospital Knights (veterans), three
militia, four catapults en three ballista's.

Two heavy armored Knights
quads, a unit of pikemen and a half unit of crossbowmen are defending the
main gate. On three towers , boiling oil can be used and the heavy walls will do the
rest!.

THE
BATLLE STARTS.

All the sieges machines
are on the move and the artillery will be very dangerous for the whole battle.

The biggest catapult is in front of the city's citadel and
Balian is directly involved.

The defenders open
fire and one of the siege towers catches fire. After the second round of the
game , the strategy of the Saracens became clear and" Ibeline" ordered
a counter - attack .

Unfamiliar with the
secret tunnel under the citadel, the Saracens didn’t expect a surprise. The Templars knights destroyed
the heavy ballista and killed the crew. But before they could strike at another
target, they themselves were attacked by a nearby infantry unit. The struggle
lasted until all Templar knights laid death on the field, but the with the
destruction of the ballista, their death was not in vain. More and more siege towers were
set fire on a tower , by means of incendiary arrows and other projectiles
, but the attackers were able to save
most of the towers. And they continued
to close in to the walls!

As in the film, de
Crusaders had ballista's with harpoons, with cable and counter weight. One of
these harpoons hit a siege tower and with the mechanism, the giant was brought
down. In its fall it did hit another
catapult, which was destroyed. All of the warriors in the tower could save
themselves before it smashed into the ground.

In the meanwhile two
Crusader units of heavy cavalry attacked from the main gate, their target was
a bowmen unit hiding behind wooden covers. Some of the latter were killed and
the survivors ran into cover behind their supporting lines. A smart move, as
the pursuing Templars fell ,into the trap and were now under fire of several
catapults . Their leader was killed and the remaining men hurried back into
the city, with heavy losses indeed!

Saladin’s men were
ramming the first gate, and bombarding
the whole front building. So, Knights and crossbows were ordered to retreat towards
the main gates fortress. Some of them didn't make it.

One of the siege towers
reached the wall and the attackers
went for the crosbowmen, by these were
saved by a unit of militia coming to their aide and were able to push back
the Saracens. Saladin, who had witnessed the Templars attack from the tunnel ,
send a unit to try to get a foothold
behind to walls by using this still open entrance. Balian alarmed by the fighting , sends two units and a elite infantry unit to stop
this new thread. This heavy fighting lasted for the remaining of battle no
one making a breakthrough.

On the right flank ,
bows and artillery had driven of the defenders from the first wall and the Saracens
used ladders to get a foothold. A few Crusader bowmen isolated in the tower
hadn’t made the retreat and succeeded in driving of an attack from a siege
tower.

The attackers pushed
on and soon the spearheads of
Saladin's army were master of the citadels gate. One wall fallen into the
hands of the enemy , another one in ruins. Balians defense was crumbling!

But he was saved by
the bel as our limit of six hours of
gaming was reached.

Counting victory
points, Saladin had won with 232/158.

But Jerusalem hadn’t
fallen!

P. S.

It took years of modeling
and preparing the game took two days. The
results on the pictures. We enjoyed it very much and hope you do the same.

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About Us

Welcome to the blog of PMCD Mobilisatie, a wargame club of Flanders (Belgium).

We play mostly in Denderleeuw, located 20 km west of Brussels. Also In De Pinte near Ghent and Opwijk, and we are always present at Crisis Antwerp.

Our speciality is 54mm Napoleonic games on battalion level using the "About Bonaparte" rules, published by Partizan Press and Caliver Books. For ancient and medieval we play with the "About Caesar" rules. http://www.caliverbooks.com/

Fantasy wargames (using LOTR figures) are played with an expansion of "About Caesar" , called "About Kings and Heroes". We also do AWI (54mm), ACW (54mm/20mm), Ancients (54mm/20mm), ECW (54mm), WW2 ground (20mm) and air battles 1/100. Also a rulebook for the Pike & Shot era was published: "About Cromwell" .

Our club has not a real membership, but has some 15 persons who join our games on a regular basis. We did also go international with interest from the Netherlands, Italy and California.